Nobel medical prize goes to 2
Americans, 1 German
By David Simpson, CNN
The Nobel Prize in physiology or
medicine starts a week of announcements in Stockholm, Sweden.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Scientists solved a mystery of how cells
deliver molecules
All three work at American universities
Prize announcements continue with
physics Tuesday
Each prize, endowed by Alfred Nobel in
1895, comes with $1.2 million
(CNN) -- Two Americans and a German shared the Nobel Prize in physiology
or medicine this year.
Americans James E. Rothman and Randy W.
Schekman, and German Thomas C. Sudhof were awarded the prize Monday for
discoveries of how the body's cells decide when and where to deliver the
molecules they produce.
The Nobel Assembly said the three
"have solved the mystery of how the cell organizes its transport
system."
Their work focuses on tiny bubbles
inside cells called vesicles, which move hormones and other molecules within
cells and sometimes outside them, such as when insulin is released into the
bloodstream.
Winners of the 2013 Medicine Nobel Prize
Disruptions of this delivery system
contribute to diabetes, neurological diseases and immunological disorders.
Rothman, a professor at Yale University,
detailed how protein machinery allows vesicles in cells to fuse with their
targets to permit the transfer of molecular cargo.
Schekman, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, was honored
for discovering a set of genes required for the "vesicle traffic."
Sudhof, a professor at Stanford
University, showed how vesicles are instructed precisely when to release
molecules.
Schekman and Sudhof also are
investigators at Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Monday's ceremony at the Karolinska
Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, will be followed by the announcement of the
physics prize Tuesday, the chemistry prize Wednesday and the economics prize on
October 14.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded in
Oslo, Norway, on Friday. The prize for literature will be awarded on a date to
be announced later. Each prize comes with 8 million Swedish kronor ($1.2
million).
Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel
created the prizes in 1895 to honor work in physics, chemistry, literature and
peace. The first economics prize was awarded in 1969.
In 2012, the medical Nobel Prize was
awarded to Sir John B. Gurdon of England and Shinya Yamanaka of Japan for work
on reprogramming cells. Their work paved the way for treatment breakthroughs. October
7, 2013 -- Updated 1040 GMT (1840 HKT and JST) CNN
